Dugu Yan's First Soul Ring

The warm Whale Rubber gave off a heavy, fishy stench the moment it reached Dugu Yan's hands.

Her brows drew tight, and her little face scrunched up.

The smell was awful. The sticky substance slid down her throat, making her gag. She nearly spat it straight back out.

She forced down the nausea rising in her throat, kept her mouth shut, and swallowed every last bit.

The instant it reached her stomach, a scalding warmth spread through her body, flowing from her gut into every limb.

Beneath her skin, prickling aches came in waves, as though countless tiny forces were pulling at her flesh, tempering her muscles and bones.

She dared not lose focus. Sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed, she drew on the faint Soul Power newly transformed by the Seven-Colored Rainbowglow Ginseng and guided the Whale Rubber's potency into her bones and meridians, little by little.

At times, heat blazed through her like fire; at others, an aching numbness took hold. She gritted her teeth and endured it without a sound.

Ye Qingxian kept the elders outside the room. They could hear only a few muffled groans from within; none could see what was happening to Dugu Yan.

Time passed. Dugu Yan sat quietly inside, bearing the torment of having her body tempered.

An hour later, Ye Qingxian finished examining Dugu Yan and stepped outside to face the men. "The effect was barely adequate, and taking too much Whale Rubber builds resistance to it. If she managed to absorb even half of that seven-hundred-year-old piece, she did well."

After a moment's thought, Ye Renxin proposed, "Then let Yanyan, Lingling, and little Xuan share the rest."

Seeing Dugu Bo lower his head in silent thought, Ye Renxin gently urged him, "Brother Dugu, old men our age would gain little even if our bodies could withstand Soul Rings another thousand or two thousand years older. But for these children, this is a tremendous opportunity to reshape the foundations of their cultivation."

"Brother Ye, I know that." Dugu Bo looked up, still thoughtful. "I was just wondering whether I should go to the coast myself and find some ten-thousand-year-old Whale Rubber."

"There's no need for that yet." Ye Renxin shook his head. "The children are still young. Their bodies aren't developed enough to withstand the violent potency of ten-thousand-year-old Whale Rubber. Even little Xuan, gifted as he is, only dares to try small amounts of thousand-year-old Whale Rubber. He mustn't touch anything stronger rashly."

Ye Renxin's words persuaded Dugu Bo to abandon the idea of searching the coast for ten-thousand-year-old Whale Rubber.

His thoughts turned to his son, Dugu Xin. His sixth Soul Ring already came from a spirit beast over twenty thousand years old. Once he broke through to the Soul Sage Realm, he might well be able to attempt a forty- to fifty-thousand-year-old Soul Ring.

No—a Soul Ring in the fifty- to sixty-thousand-year range!

But that was still a long way off. There was no rush; he would have plenty of time to look for one later.

Lu Xuan, Ye Lingling, and Dugu Yan took Whale Rubber for two full days, and all three felt thoroughly miserable.

Whale Rubber could temper the body, but it also had an intense, heating aphrodisiac effect. As its potency surged through them, they could not shake the restlessness it stirred.

Fortunately, the three were still weak, and Ye Qingxian kept a strict watch over them. Otherwise, the two young girls might have made Lu Xuan's life unbearable.

Even so, swept up in the agitation caused by the medicine, the two girls somehow stole Lu Xuan's first kiss.

Lu Xuan was beginning to understand what Wang Dong'er meant when she said she had "eaten Whale Rubber until she wanted to puke."

Taking the Whale Rubber had been agonizing, but the gains the three made were heartening.

Lu Xuan's body could now withstand a fifteen-hundred-year-old second Soul Ring. Both Ye Lingling and Dugu Yan could safely absorb Soul Rings up to eleven hundred years old.

The improvement was hardly earth-shattering, but it was enough for what lay ahead.

"Yanyan, we'll give you your First Soul Ring now." Dugu Bo and Ye Renxin brought Dugu Yan before the Seven-Colored Rainbow Phosphorus Serpent. Dugu Bo instructed her in a grave voice, "I'll feed it the Seven-Colored Poison Fruit. Once it has absorbed the fruit's potency, you can absorb its Soul Ring."

Dugu Yan nodded firmly. "I understand, Grandpa."

She knew this step, like taking the Seven-Colored Rainbowglow Ginseng, was an opportunity that could change her fate.

Dugu Bo said no more. He stepped forward, seized the Seven-Colored Rainbow Phosphorus Serpent's head, forced its jaws open, and pushed the Seven-Colored Poison Fruit down its throat.

Dugu Xin had kept the serpent soaking like a medicinal snake for days, leaving it exhausted. When it was force-fed the fruit, it remained dazed, unable to grasp what had happened.

Then a violent burst of dazzling medicinal power erupted inside it. The Seven-Colored Rainbow Phosphorus Serpent instantly sensed that this fruit was no ordinary thing.

Already more than nine hundred years old, it used that power to break through its limits and enter the thousand-year tier.

The Seven-Colored Rainbow Phosphorus Serpent was a rare breed. For it, the hundred-year and thousand-year tiers were worlds apart.

Unfortunately for the serpent, Dugu Bo stood before it—a man on the verge of becoming a Titled Douluo!

Before it could lash out with its newfound strength, Dugu Bo exerted a little force. A vast surge of Soul Power crashed down and gravely injured it on the spot.

"Yanyan, now!"

"Got it!" Dugu Yan understood. Dagger in hand, she stepped forward and swiftly ended the Seven-Colored Rainbow Phosphorus Serpent's life.

A gleaming purple thousand-year Soul Ring slowly rose from the serpent's corpse, turning in the air.

Without hesitation, Dugu Yan sat cross-legged, drew the Soul Ring into her body, and devoted herself entirely to absorbing it.

The purple Soul Ring hovered above her head, shining with a deep, lustrous light. Wisps of violet radiance streamed down into her body like flowing water.

The instant the Soul Ring entered her, violent Snake Poison Power surged through her meridians. The Seven-Colored Rainbow Phosphorus Serpent's innate power merged with her newly evolved, as-yet-unnamed Seven-Colored Snake Martial Soul.

Multicolored snake markings appeared across her body once more, spreading over her arms and neck. The sheen of seven kinds of scales flickered across her skin.

Waves of tearing pain swept through her. The Soul Ring's power scoured and widened her meridians, while the cold, deadly venom unique to serpent spirit beasts churned through her flesh. Every so often, a wisp of seven-colored poisonous mist escaped from her body.

Dugu Yan clenched her jaw so hard that her teeth dug into her lower lip. Beads of sweat rolled down her cheeks, soaking the hair at her temples.

Her fists were clenched tight, and her muscles trembled beyond her control. She had to withstand the strain of a thousand-year Soul Ring while guiding the potency left in her body by the Whale Rubber and Seven-Colored Rainbowglow Ginseng to ease her rejection of the spirit beast's innate power.

The purple Soul Ring's light flickered, flaring one moment and dimming the next.

Dugu Yan kept her eyes shut, not daring to lose focus for an instant. She poured all her Soul Power into taming the violent strength of the thousand-year Seven-Colored Rainbow Phosphorus Serpent, little by little.